How to Craft a Strong AI Prompt

Generative AI is definitely here. You've likely encountered countless LinkedIn posts, sat through numerous meetings, and even witnessed debates online, all focused on AI’s potential power and effectiveness. While some say AI is a transformative tool streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency, others remain skeptical about its ability to deliver desired outcomes.

In the midst of this ongoing debate, Tome has identified a crucial factor that determines AI's effectiveness: the art of crafting the perfect prompt. Whether you're aiming to generate captivating narratives or precise data analyses, the way you frame your prompts significantly influences AI's response. Every detail of your AI prompt matters, from choosing the right language to providing clear specifications.

Below, we’ll break down the elements of a compelling AI prompt structure, share actionable tips on prompt writing, and show a few examples to get you on your way.

What are good AI prompts?

Think of a good AI prompt as a simple formula with expressions. In the prompt example above, the expressions comprise key elements that should be top of mind as you sit down to ask AI for help making work.

This is a flexible formula and can be rearranged as needed but in general, a good ai prompt will include a solid topic, a clear goal, a specific format, and descriptive content. With this formula in hand, or different variations of it, your desiredAI platform is more likely to generate your ideal output.

Elements to include in your AI prompt

Here are five strategic tips for crafting strong AI prompts.

1. Be direct

Learning how to communicate with LLMs (large learning models) is similar to asking a favor of a friend or teammate. It's best to be straightforward in your language, be clear and get to the point. Avoid jargon, overly complex vocabulary or convoluted phrasing.

Check out the prompt example below and the tome.

💡AI Prompt Tips💡

• If you have a long list of points you want to talk about in your presentation, write them all down.
• Include a page count at the end of your prompt, i.e., “make it # pages long”
• Tome’s AI organizes all points into an outline. Manually refine and reorder points from there.

2. Be specific

Get as prescriptive and specific as you can. Context is key so fill in as many details that you think is necessary to make your points. The more context the LLM has in your prompt, the better output you'll get.

Be detailed but at a high-level, think of a prompt as a simple storytelling framework. Every good story has a clear beginning, a middle and an end, just be sure to be clear.

💡AI Prompt Tips💡

• Ask AI to follow a specific outline by literally asking for it word for word, i.e., “Write out each page’s title and content.”
• Format with specificity, i.e., “Use bullets only for text,” or “Text should be in bullets.”
• Err away from negatives, i.e., avoid using don't. Telling Tome's AI what not to do can often lead to inaccurate outputs.

3. Be creative

You're here because you likely are already aware of the limitless creative potential that AI brings to the table. You can include requests in your prompts denoting data and diagrams, or the type of AI imagery you'd like in your presentation.

💡AI Prompt Tips💡

• Ask for “a flowchart” in your Create a presentation about instructions to make an editable diagram with AI automatically.
• Specify the image style you want in your prompt. Aask for “colorful, abstract images,” “pencil sketches,” “photorealistic images.”
  • By default, AI-generated images are now less cartoonish and more consistent in their visual style across all pages.

4. Be mindful of tone and voice.

Highlight the benefit of defining what you want your tone and voice to be in your AI prompt. For example, if you’re creating a professional, business-oriented piece of content and need writing to match, simply include that within your prompt. Same for a personal document such as a party invitation where you’re looking to express information in a conversational, friendly tone.

5. Be constructive

Highlight the benefit of giving feedback to your AI and how that can help tweak outcomes to be what you’re looking for.

Prompt writing is more art than science although this is quickly evolving on a daily basis. Be open to experimenting with your AI prompts. You might not get the perfect result the first time—ideating is just part of the prompt process.

We can't wait to see where your prompts take you. Stay tuned for more in the Tome 101 series on our Blog.

What would you like to do more of with Tome? Let us know at team@tome.page.